What ailed Lincoln at Gettysburg Address

Doctors believe he had a bad case of smallpox

Lindsey Tanner, The Associated Press

Published 10:00 pm, Tuesday, May 22, 2007

CHICAGO -- Abraham Lincoln has been dead for 142 years, but he still manages to make medical headlines, this time from doctors who say he had a bad case of smallpox when he delivered the Gettysburg Address.

Physicians in Baltimore said last week that Lincoln might have survived being shot if today's medical technology had existed in 1865. Last year, University of Minnesota researchers suggested that a genetic nerve disorder rather than the long-speculated Marfan syndrome might have caused his clunky gait.

"If you play doctor, it's difficult to shut down the diagnostic process" when reading about historical figures, said Dr. Armond Goldman, an immunology specialist and professor emeritus at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. He and a colleague "diagnosed" serious smallpox in Lincoln after scouring historical documents, biographies and old newspaper clippings.

"Lincoln is such a famous figure in American life that people are just automatically drawn to him," Goldman said.

Heart illness, eye problems and depression are among other ailments modern-day doctors have investigated in the 16th president. But smallpox is the one that might come as the biggest surprise to the general public, especially if Lincoln had it when he spoke at Gettysburg.

According to Goldman and co-author Dr. Frank Schmalstieg, Lincoln fell ill Nov. 18, the day before giving the speech in Pennsylvania.

When Lincoln arrived at the battlefield to dedicate a cemetery for the fallen soldiers, he was weak, dizzy and his face "had a ghastly color," according to the report.

On the train back to Washington that evening, Lincoln was feverish and had severe headaches. Then he developed back pains, exhaustion and a widespread scarlet rash that turned blisterlike. A servant who tended to Lincoln during the three-week illness later developed smallpox and died in January 1864.

The smallpox theory isn't news to many historians, although some say documents suggest Lincoln had a mild form of the disease.